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  The Petticoat Commando

  Johanna Brandt

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  In introducing the English version of this book I venture to bespeak a welcome for it, not only for the light which it throws on some little-known incidents of the South African war, but also because of the keen personal interest of the events recorded. It is more than a history. It is a dramatic picture of the hopes and fears, the devotion and bitterness with which some patriotic women in Pretoria watched and, as far as they could, took part in the war which was slowly drawing to its conclusion on the veld outside.I do not associate myself with the opinions expressed by the writer as to the causes of the war or the methods adopted to bring it to an end, or as to the policy which led to the Concentration Camps, and the causes of the terrible mortality which prevailed during the first months of their existence. On these matters many readers will hold different opinions from the writer, or will prefer to let judgment be in suspense and to look to the historian of the future for a final verdict. We are still too near the events to be impartial. But this book does not challenge or invite controversy. Fortunately for South Africa, most of us on both sides can now discuss the events of the war without bitterness and understand and respect the feelings of those who were most sharply divided by these events from ourselves.The greater part of the narrative comes from a diary kept during the war with unusual fullness and vividness. The difficulty experienced by the writer of the diary in communicating to friends outside Pretoria information about what was passing inside, and in unburdening herself of the feelings roused in her by the events of the war, made the diary more than usually intimate. To understand fully many of the narratives which have been transferred from it to this book, it must be remembered that one is reading, not something written from memory years after the event, but rather the record of a conversation at the time, in which the diarist is describing the events as if to a friend who shares to the full all her own feelings and to whom she can speak without reserve.Much has happened in the ten years which have passed since the end of the war. The country which was distracted by the conflicting ideals and interests of its different Governments and peoples has become the Union of South Africa. It is now one State. It remains that it should call forth a spirit of patriotism and nationality which will unite and not divide its people.(Introduction by Patrick Duncan)

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  Rising - From a Mud Hut to the...

  Graci Harkema

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  An identity that spans the globe.In this astonishing memoir, Graci Harkema revisits her experience growing up as an adoptee from the Congo in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She traces her path to claiming and living her own story, becoming a successful consultant on diversity, equity and inclusion, racial justice, LGBTQ+ equality, and women in business.Born amid civil unrest in a mud hut in the Congo and weighing a mere three pounds, Harkema was left at an orphanage, where she was not expected to live another day. But that afternoon, a visiting American missionary saw her sleeping in a doll’s bed and heard a voice inside her say, “This is your daughter.”Her childhood was spent wishing to be lighter and blonder, like her siblings and classmates. Out of fear of standing out even more from her peers, Harkema kept her sexuality a secret, only coming out of the closet years later—during a job interview! Eventually, she learned to see her identity as her superpower, instead of her shame.Today, Harkema helps embrace diversity and drive inclusion to ensure open and safe work environments. She is committed to empowering employees to perform to their potential as their authentic selves—setting an example as she continues to live her own story, journeying to meet her birth mother, to discover one more piece of herself.

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  The Adventures of Colonel Daffodil

  Roy Redgrave

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  Major General Sir Roy Redgrave has enjoyed an unusual, some might say eccentric, life.  Born into the same family as the well known actors, he was brought up in Romania as part of a thriving international community before he joined the British Army and advanced to high rank.Following on from the success of his memoir Balkan Blue the author has pulled together a superb pot pourri of anecdotes covering his family, his military career and post-retirement travels and experiences. Readers will delight in the scope of this book which ranges widely from aristocratic life in feudal Romania to the dangers an intrigue of the Cold War; from the charm of French rural life to Franz Josef Land and encounters with polar bears, walruses and seals.  We travel with this intrepid man from Kathmandu to Lhasa where he lived with impoverished Tibetans whose generosity and friendliness made the discomfort of primitive living at such altitudes disappear.These and other extraordinary experiences made this a fascinating read.

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  War Amongst the Clouds - My...

  AVM Hugh Granville White, GP...

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  This is the story of a young man who trained as a pilot, and then flew with the Royal Flying Corps in France during the First World War, eventually becoming an ace.Hugh White flew F.E.2D Scout aircraft as a reconnaissance patrol pilot and later in the war was promoted to squadron leader of squadrons flying the S.E.5a, which was Britain's best fighter aircraft at the time. During the two years of flying, he experienced and survived a series of escapades including a dramatic mid-air collision with the enemy. Told by Hugh in his own words, War Amongst the Clouds gives a unique insight into war in the air. With the break-up of his squadron and being reduced to a substantive rank — simply because of his young age, Hugh's writing ends in 1919. From this point, the story is continued by his younger son Christopher. He describes Hugh's life and RAF career from flying in India during the 1920s through the Second World War until his retirement as an air vice-marshal in 1955. This book includes a foreword by Sir Frederick Sowrey (Hugh's nephew), which puts Hugh White's early wartime service into context. It is a timely reminder, following the centenary of the end of the First World War, of the difficulties that young pilots faced at the time. A must-listen for those interested in wartime exploits.

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  Black Fire - The True Story of...

  Robert Graysmith

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  When twenty-eight-year-old San Francisco Daily Morning Call reporter Mark Twain met Tom Sawyer at a local bathhouse in 1863, he was seeking a subject for his first novel. As Twain steamed, played cards, and drank beer with Sawyer (a volunteer firefighter, customs inspector, and local hero responsible for having saved ninety lives at sea), he had second thoughts about Shirley Tempest, his proposed book about a local girl firefighter, and began to envision a novel of wider scope. Twain learned that a dozen years earlier the then-eighteen-year-old New York-born Sawyer had been a "Torch Boy," one of the youths who raced ahead of the volunteer firemen's hand-drawn engines at night carrying torches to light the way, always aware that a single spark could reduce the all-wood city of San Francisco to ashes in an instant. At that time a mysterious serial arsonist known by some as "The Lightkeeper" was in the process of burning San Francisco to the ground six times in eighteen months-the most disastrous and costly series of fires ever experienced by any American metropolis.Black Fire is the most thorough and accurate account of Sawyer's relationship with Mark Twain and of the six devastating incendiary fires that baptized one of the modern world's favorite cities. Set amid a scorched landscape of burning roads, melting iron warehouses, exploding buildings, and deadly gangs who extorted and ruled by fear, it includes the never-before-told stories of Sawyer's heroism during the sinking of the steamship Independence and the crucial role Sawyer and the Torch Boys played in solving the mystery of the Lightkeeper.  Drawing on archival sources such as actual San Francisco newspaper interviews with Sawyer and the handwritten police depositions of the arrest of the Lightkeeper, bestselling author Robert Graysmith vividly portrays the gritty, corrupt, and violent world of Gold Rush-era San Francisco, overrun with gunfighters, hooligans, hordes of gold prospectors, crooked politicians, and vigilantes. By chronicling how Sawyer took it upon himself to investigate, expose, and stop the arsonist, Black Fire details-for the first time-Sawyer's remarkable life and illustrates why Twain would later feel compelled to name his iconic character after his San Francisco buddy when he wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

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  Dream Brother - The Lives &...

  David Browne

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  A “meticulously researched” dual biography on the lives and artistry of the father and son musicians whose lives were each cut short (Chicago Tribune). 
   
  When Jeff Buckley drowned at the age of thirty in 1997, he not only left behind a legacy of brilliant music—he brought back haunting memories of his father, ’60s troubadour Tim Buckley, a gifted musician who barely knew his son and who himself died at twenty-eight. Both father and son made transcendent music that mixed rock, jazz, and folk; both amassed a cadre of obsessive, adoring fans. 
   
  This absorbing dual biography—based on interviews with more than one hundred friends, family members, and business associates as well as access to journals and unreleased recordings—tells for the first time the intriguing, often heartbreaking story of these two musicians. It offers a new understanding of the Buckleys’ parallel lives—and tragedies—while exploring the changing music business between the '60s and the '90s. Finally, it tells the story of a father and son, two complex, enigmatic men who died searching for themselves and each other. 
   
  Praise for Dream Brother 
   
  “Ambitious. . . . Uses a wealth of reportage to depict convincingly two generations of pop music turmoil.” —Washington Post 
   
  “An extraordinarily detailed account of the Buckleys’ personal and professional lives . . . Browne’s book is a seamless, readable narrative. . . . He’s not just a fine journalist but a natural storyteller.” —Boston Globe 
   
  “Captures their respective legacies with the same kind of poetic sweep the Buckleys offered with their music.” —Fort Worth Star-Telegram

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